Was it just me or was de deer lady totally out of context with the movie, why was she over-acting it so much. I think that she was a nice character but the way that het role was worked out was just terrible......anyone else have the same feelings???
That was totally hilarious. I think if it wasn't for the comic relief ("I have even blared out Public Enemy from my car!!!!") The film would've felt far too serious.
It's often a Lynch trademark to throw in off-kilter characters & dialogue that's on the verge of hysteria; this one struck me as such.
Ummm, some instances that spring to mind -
-the mother in E-head (at the dinner table, etc.)
-Nadine in Twin Peaks
-a few salty personnas in Wild at Heart
-the espresso-spitting Italian mogul in Mulholland Dr.
"Put the pick in there, Pete - and turn it 'round reeeeeeal neat."
Also Mr. Eddie in Lost Highway going crazy on that guy for tailgating.
shareThe deer lady was bad but what was worse was when he was eatin the deer that all those other deer came and watched, those deer where fakest deer i have ever seen.
shareThe "fake" deer in the scene were decoys. Sometimes hunters use decoys of does to attract the bucks. I imagine that Alvin did not travel any further that day. He spent time dressing the deer and camped right near where the deer had been killed. The decoy deer were on the farm that was near where all 14 deer had been killed. The reason that the lady had killed all those deer in the same area was because they were attracted to the decoys. This was just a funny scene.
shareYes, it was a funny scene, and her acting was not under the circumstances, overdone. She was desperate. She was a peaceful woman who hated blood and gore and like anyone would hate the danger of regular car accidents. Nonetheless, she is being regularly and repeatedly exposed to considerable danger and being forced to repeatedly do violence to a species which she bodes no ill-will, indeed "loves." She has to drive that way to go to work and can't quit her job. She feels she has been condemned to a weird, hellish, repetitive, cursed existence. You might freak out too, so don't judge till it happens to you.
The driver hitting the deer is no self-indulgent directorial digression but a crucial episode...He witnesses the offscreen accident that we only hear...His horror is not just reaction but abreaction: he's hearing an echo of his own accident [the fire that killed his grandchild].
This driver isn't telling a straight story, either [just as the stories Alvin tells are full of conspicuous gaps and contradictions]. That's more than bad luck. The fact is, she was driving way too fast: her car veered around Alvin's rig just as he was riding by a NO PASSING ZONE sign. The reason she keeps hitting deer is that she's a reckless driver.
Excerpted from:
http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/revicontent_97_p.htm
Her refusal to take responsibility (at least partial) reflects Alvin's situation. He says the fire happened when "someone" was supposed to be watching the kids. "Someone" was him!
That was amazing! Thank you.
shareWow. I never thought of that larry2475. That makes sense. Also, he was propably drunk and this guilt led him to a priest who helped him quit drinking.
Thanks for the enlightenment.
Her refusal to take responsibility (at least partial) reflects Alvin's situation...
I'd agree with that. The deer lady furiously blames everyone and everything else for the tragedies in her life, but is blind to her key role in those tragedies. Alvin intimates throughout the film that he had lived like that in the past, and the journey is his attempt to redeem himself.
Wow. I watched this film again last night for about the fifth time and I'd never made that connection before. It may not be exactly what Lynch had in mind but it's certainly thought-provoking and it shows there are actually some people on IMDB engaging in the film beyond "it's boring".
Thank you.
I like this scene because it makes Alvin's method of travelling to Wisconsin seem less eccentric. The Straight Story is full of little moments where someone passes Alvin, only for him to catch up further down the road. It makes a nice contrast to the pregnant girl hitcher: Alvin passes her near the start of his journey and much later she catches up with him at the camp fire.
I love this film. Best road movie ever.
Odd comments from that article since Alvin didn't say his grandson died, only that he was burnt pretty bad.
Secondly, rural roads like that have speed limits that can easily go up to 55 MPH (or more) & if you know rural people (I grew up rurally on a small farm) you'll know they'll take advantage of the situation. Also, if any of you have hit a deer you know how fast they can get in your path (or on the back of one's motorcycle, which happened to a friend of ours a few years ago.) The commuter would have had to have gone 25-30 MPH the whole way to work to reduce her chances of hitting her dear enough to not hit & kill one. What amazes me is that her car was still drivable at all and that one didn't go through her windshield.
I understood her hysteria.
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I don't think the grandchild died, I remember Alvin saying the kid was badly burned, nevertheless, good call on who was the "someone" supervising Rosie's kids
shareThis is just my take...
I think one of the central themes of the whole movie is the difference between Alvin's slow-moving, non-modernized world and the reality in which we live in. In Alvin's home town of Laurens, where he has lived for a very long time indeed, the society he is exposed is basically the same one that was there 40 or even 60 years ago, only older. They are farmers living in a localized situation.
On Alvin's Journey to Mt. Zion (of course being a reference to the mythical un-civilized utopia that exists in contrast to Babylon) he is exposed to mainstream culture in ways that he previously hasn't experienced. My favorite two moments of the movie are both of the surreal instances in which Alvin suddenly catches a glimpse of the contemporary culture that we live in that he has managed to avoid. First with the bicycle race...Alvin is so bewildered he has to stop and look for himself. And secondly is with the deer lady.
Alvin's encounter with the deer lady puts him face to face with the unfathomable. First, it is unfathomable that this woman races 50 miles to and from work every day in comparison with Alvin's daily life in his backyard. Secondly, her behavior itself, and the level of tension that she clearly lives at on a daily basis, is also unfathomable, hence the "overacting." Alvin is in contrast with us in modern society and the deer lady because he doesn't live at this pace, and could never become so exasperated. Through Alvin's eyes, we see how ridiculous the rat race has made us.
Lynch uses some typical Lynchian techniques to make the deer lady seem so eerily ugly. One is the exasperated, yet darkly comical, over acting. Another is the use of sound. The sound of the accident is what alerts us to the level of its catastrophe. The sound of her voice is what seems so out of place in comparison with Alvin's. And the sound of her car screeching off seems out of place in comparison with the gentle chirp of crickets.
In short, I like deer lady she is crucial.
Sorry geoffwich but I would have to disagree with you entirely, I think that if Lynch wanted to contrast Alvin's old fashioned habits and lifestyle with the "rat race" of modern times, he could have done it a lot better than that. I dont think the bicycle scene does that at all. Anybody would be amazed at watching all those bikers ride by, and probably feel a little overwhelmed, especially if you are driving a '66 Deere. The only part where I see Alvin alienated by modern culture is when the lady is all hysterical because of what happened, but I really dont think that he is completely out of place. In fact everywhere he goes he seems to fit in just fine... Of course being an elder one would suffer from this type of outsider feeling, no matter who you are, but I dont think that it is meant to be a highlighted element of the movie...
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I also found some symbolism in the fact that Alvin was driving a slow-moving Deere, and how he was always the slowest thing on the road, trying to stay out of the way of everything else in life as it quickly passed him by. I am still wrapping my brain around the decoy deer watching over Alvin eating the real deer and how he felt their eyes on him. He even turned his back to them so they couldn't see him!
"Everything they do is so dramatic and flamboyant. It just makes me want to set myself on fire!"
The deer lady was bad but what was worse was when he was eatin the deer that all those other deer came and watched, those deer where fakest deer i have ever seen.For some reason, that's the funniest post I think I've ever read. And it's been over four years since you did it...wonder what kind of material you've come up with since.
in fact, that's the posters only comment. EVER.
you know, you can click a person IMDB profile, right?
Tell me about it. I just laughed my head off at that post. I don't know if they were being serious or not, but I hope they were because that would be mighty funny.
I only do it with superheroes.
lol
shareIt's showing another of the common occurences in the countryside. People that live in little to un-populated areas come across deer ALL THE TIME and they've all generally hit a few in their day and it gets EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING dealing with insurance issues and possible rate hikes, etc. It is a fact of life in many of these types of areas. To me it was the writers way of showing another facet of the countryside.
This film is like a love letter to the Midwest among other things.
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It felt natural to me too. Her neurotic behaviour would seem like an overreaction from the point of view of a bystander but the majority of people get in that irrational state of mind every once in a while, only it can be triggered by many different factors. When you're upset and angry, sometimes you just explode with emotion. My take is that she doesn't act like that every single time she hits a deer- she just reached the end of her tether on this particular day. Having someone there to witness the inncident also accentuates the whole reality of the situation and causes her to confront what she's done and release her sadness and frustration over these repeated incidents.
A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste
The woman blamed everyone else when she always drove like a maniac even when she knew that there where deers on that area. I almost waited Alvin to say "well, why dont ya drive slower"
shareI totally agree with the OP, her acting was so *beep* over-the-top.
Oh baby, baby it's a wild world